On the 13th of January, 1851, when Alexander Ramsey was taking the chair as president of the Historical Society, he said: “Minnesota has a history and that not altogether an unwritten one, which can unravel many a page of deep, engrossing interest, which is rich in tales of daring enterprise, of faithful endurances, of high hopes; which is marked by the early traveler's foot-prints, and by the ancient explorer's pencil; which is glowing with the myths and traditions of our aboriginal races, sprinkled over with their battle-fields, with the sites of their ancient villages, and with the wah-kaun stones of their teeming mythology. With these “original races” our sketch must begin.

Even earlier than the year 1634, the Indians around the great lakes had learned to carry their furs to Quebec, where they received in exchange such articles of European manufacture as suited their needs or pleased their fancy; but in this year (1634), two priests named Breboeuf and Daniel, fired with zeal for the Church, accompanied a party of Hurons from Quebec back to their distant home. Neil tells us that they were the first European who erected a house in the neighborhood of Lake Huron; and that “seven years later, a bark canoe containing priests of the same order, passed through the river Ottawa and coasted along the shores of Lake Huron to visit, by invitation, the Ojibways, at the outlet of Lake Superior.” It required seventeen days from the time of starting for that bark canoe to reach the Falls of St. Mary; and here the priests found two thousand of the tribe assembled, waiting to receive them and listen to their message.

It was upon this missionary journey that the white men heard, for the first time, of the tribe of the Dakotahs, on the site of whose lodges and wigwams the cities and towns of Minnesota have arisen.

The Ojibways informed the priests that the Dakotahs lived eighteen days' journey farther towards the west. This was in 1634. It was twenty years later before the white man penetrated the Dakotah territory. In this year two young men, “connected with the fur trade, followed a party of Indians in their hunting excursions,” and were finally thus conducted to the borders of the Dakotahs. This was in 1654. When they returned to Quebec, they gave such glowing accounts of the lands, lakes, rivers, people, resources, that both trader and priest became enthusiastic for its conquest. The trader at first fared better than the priest; for good Father Mesnard was lost in attempting to reach the newly discovered savages; and tradition asserts that only his cassock and prayer-book completed, in some mysterious way, the journey, and were kept for many years by the Dakotahs as amulets.

The word Dakotah, by which the original occupants of the soil of Minnesota designated themselves, signifies allied, or joined together, or federated. Nearly two centuries ago, it was written of them. “For sixty leagues from the extremity of the upper lake towards sunset, and as it were, in the center of the western nations, they have all united their force by a general league.” The name Sioux which is most familiar to us, originated with the early French discoverers. The Ojibways of Lake Superior had, from time immemorial, waged war against the Dakotahs, and naturally always referred to them as enemies. The term they used was Nadowaysioux. The French, according to Charlevoix, abbreviated this term by 006 11using only the latter part of it. He says: “The name of Sioux that we give to these Indians is entirely of our own making; or, rather, it is the last two syllables of the name of Nadouessioux, as many nations call them.”

There have been three great divisions of the Dakotahs, or Sioux; and these have been still farther subdivided. These subdivisions are too numerous to mention in such a sketch as the present one. The first of the three principal divisions was called the Isanyati, whose chief band was the M'dewakantonwan, and their territory was around the shores of Mille Lacs and along the borders of Rum River. The second of these divisions was the Ihanktonwan, most commonly called Yankton; and they are said to have occupied the region west of Mille Lacs and north of the Minnesota river. The third division is the Titonwan, who dwelt at Lac qui Parle and Big Stone lake.

The language of the Dakotahs was different from that of other Indian tribes, and was no more understood by those tribes than by the white men. The first mention of a Dakotah word in a European book is found in Father Hennepin's account. When the savages saw him reading his breviary they exclaimed, “Wakan-de!” His companions interpreted it as an expression of displeasure and begged Father Hennepin to be less public in his devotions, fearing that the Indians would murder them all. The father complied, although they afterwards discovered that the word was simply an expression of surprise and wonder. A grammar and dictionary of the Dakotah language, compiled by Rev. S. R. Riggs, of Lac qui Parle, has been published by the Smithsonian Institute, under the auspices of the Minnesota Historical Society. The language, as embodied in these works, reflects the surroundings, the mental habits, and the state of progress of these savages. Their vocabulary of trees and shrubs “covers probably all, or nearly all, the varieties which grow in their country, .. but they have very few specific names for flowers.” The sense of beauty is almost entirely lacking. One can not make bows and arrows and tent-poles out of flowers. Fish and birds all have names, and there are words which show an intimate acquaintance with their habits. Engaged in constantly dissecting wild animals, “their vocabulary of terms denoting the different parts of the body is extensive and definite.” But “in terms to denote abstract ideas, the Dakotah language is undoubtedly defective.” The ideas themselves were absent. In this connection, Mr. Riggs says: “It is only just to remark that the language under consideration is possessed of great flexibility; almost all words expressing quality may be so changed as to the stand for those qualities in the abstract.” The Dakotah noun is not properly declinable. Variation are denoted by affixing and suffixing pronouns. These are of great number and power of expression. “Nothing can be found anywhere more full and flexible than the Dakotah verb. The affixes and reduplications and pronouns and prepositions all come in to make it of such a stately pile of thoughts as is to be found nowhere else. A single paradigm presents more than a thousand variations.” In the arrangement of predicate and substantive in a sentence, “the Dakotah language is eminently simple and natural. The sentence ‘Give me bread,’ a Dakotah transposes to ‘Bread me give.’ Such is the genius of the language that in translating a sentence or verse from the Bible, one expects to begin not at the beginning, but at the end. And, such, too, is the common practice of their best interpreters; where the person who is speaking leaves off, there they usually commence and proceed backward to the beginning. In this way, the connection of a sentence is more easily retained in the mind and more naturally evolved.”

Passing on to the religion of the Dakotahs, without entering into the details of their belief and worship, we may use the comprehensive statement of General Sibley: “The religion of the Dakotahs is a mere myth. It has been asserted that the Indian race are monotheists, and therefore far in advance of other pagans who believe in a multiplicity of deities; that they look forward to a future state and to its retributions. I regret to be obliged to express an opinion on this subject which must conflict with such favorable impressions. The belief attributed to the eastern tribes of a happy hunting-ground for the good and wastes devoid of game for the bad, in another sphere of existence finds no response in the breast of a Dakotah. He seeks to propitiate what he calls the Great Spirit and a multitude of minor spirits, especially those embodied in oval-shaped 007 12stones, by sacrifices of tobacco and other trifling articles, not because he hopes or cares for reward in a higher state of being, but because he deprecates the visitations of their anger upon the earth in the form of disease, accident, or death, to himself or his family. I have no reason to believe that any Dakotah, among the very many with whom I have conversed on the subject, was ever deterred from the commission of a crime by a fear of punishment in another world, nor have I been able to satisfy myself that their impressions of a future state are anything but shadowy, uncertain and unsatisfactory.”

The manners and customs of the Dakotah tribes present an interesting field of research; but our present sketch must be confined to a hurried survey. The Dakotahs were fond of war, and so relentless in battle that other tribes feared them. Their children were cradled to the sound of battle-music; and the first playthings were miniature bows and arrows. War and the chase were the Dakotah's chief employments; and in the intervals he observed the feasts and dances of religion. The domestic life was that of all savages. The wife or wives—for they were polygamous—was obtained by purchase and devoted to the service of a slave or drudge. In moving from place to place, the Dakotah woman carried the lodge, camp-kettles, axe, babies and small dogs upon her back. She erected the teepee, cut the wood, built the fires, and cooked the meals. She was subject to all the whims of here husband, and was usually treated with harshness and cruelty. As a result, suicides were frequent among Dakotah women. The food of these Indians was principally fish, venison, buffalo and dog-meat. One of the old chiefs once declared to a party of explorers: “The savage loves dog-meat as well as the white man loves pork.” They did not cultivate the soil. Sometimes they used a species of wild rice that grew in the swamps. Dependent upon the steam and the chase, they were constantly oscillating between starvation and gluttony. Without regular hours for eating, they were also without regular hours for sleep. In person they were filthy and full of vermin. Their bodies were more familiar with paint than with water. Adulterous and thievish, they were at last compelled to enter into certain compacts for self-preservation—upon Sir John Falstaff's principle that “thieves must be true to each other.” “The Sioux nation,” says Culbertson, “has no general council, but each tribe and band determines its own affairs. These bands have some ties of interest analogous to our secret societies. The ‘Crow-feather-in-cap’ band are pledged to protect each other's wives and to refrain from violating them. If the wife of one of their number is stolen from another of their number, she is returned, the band either paying the thief to restore the stolen property or forcing him to do it. The ‘Strong-Heart’ band is pledged to protect each other in their horses.” And so on. The Dakotah had his hours of recreation, as well as his battles and chase and religious dances. His favorite pastime was a game of ball corresponding with what school-boys used to call “shinney.” Betting ran high, hundreds of dollars' worth of property was often lost and won on a single game. Guns, horses, blankets, belts and ornaments used to change hands with marvelous rapidity. The game usually broke up, as games in more modern times occasionally do, in clamorous disputes and altercations. When, after his precarious existence, enlivened by war and chase and dance and play, the Dakotah died, his nearest friend was always anxious to go out and kill somebody, especially an enemy. Neil relates that “a father lost his child while the treaty of 1851 was pending at Mendota, and he longed to go and kill an Ojibway.” The corpse was always wrapped in its best clothes, and some one acquainted with the deceased would harangue the unseen powers as well as the friends of the departed, upon his virtues. The friends would sit with black pigment, the sign of mourning, on their faces. Loud lamentations rent the air, and the mourners cut their thighs and legs with their finger-nails, or pieces of stone. “The corpse is not buried, but placed in a box upon a scaffold some eight or ten feet from the ground. Hung around the scaffold are such things as would please the spirit, if it were still in the flesh, such as the scalp of an enemy or pots of food. After the corpse has been exposed for some months, and the bones only remain, they are buried in a heap, and protected from the wolves by stakes.”

Such were the tribes who dwelt upon the soil of Minnesota before the axe of the white man rang through its forests or his plough-share had turned the soil of its prairies. So lived the Dakotah, 008 13and so he died. Some of the legends of this primitive people still linger in our literature, and names of Dakotah origin are still borne by our towns and lakes and rivers. These are pleasant memorials of a time that is gone and a race that is almost extinct. But, on the other hand, as we shall see later, the savagery of the Dakotah has written the record of his conflict with civilization in letters of blood. Among the historic places of our state are battle-fields where the heroic settler bravely met the insane fury of the Dakotah's merciless attacks. There are men and women living to-day who remember scenes of massacre in which their own friends and relatives went down under the tomahawk and scalping-knife!

We have already described how the white men originally heard of the land of the Dakotahs, and how they first made their way to its borders. Let us now return and follow up the story of voyage and discovery. Little by little the area of savagery is to be opened to civilization. In this work the initiative is always taken by traveler and trader. The emissaries of commerce prepare the way for the priest. The trading-post is the center around which, later, churches and schools are built. It will be interesting to trace the processes by which section after section of what is now the state of Minnesota was added to the map of the world.

In May 1671, the most notable gathering that, up to that time, had been held upon this continent, assembled at Sault Ste. Marie. For months before, Nicholas Perrot, at the request of the Canadian authorities, had been visiting the various tribes of the Northwest, inviting them to this council. For months before, DeLusson had been exploring the country around the great lakes to find out its resources—planting the cross of the church and the arms of France wherever he went. The French and the Indians must now have an understanding in regard to trade. At this great conference they meet to form a compact. There were present, on this occasion, the most noted travelers and ecclesiastics of the day. De Lusson, Perrot and Joliet were there; and there also were Fathers Allouez and Dablon. Before them sat the representatives of the various tribes. They were freshly decorated with paint and feathers, and wrapped in their best furs of beaver and buffalo. Father allouez, the first priest who had seen the Dakotahs face to face, and who had founded the Ojibway mission at La Pointe, opened the proceedings. He addressed the Indians, telling them of the Great King beyond the sea, describing the monarch's power and grandeur. Two holes were then dug, in one of which was planted a cedar column, in the other a cedar cross. Then the Europeans sang one of the Latin hymns of the Church, after which, to column and cross were fastened metal plates engraved with the arms of France. De Lusson then addressed the Indians in French, and Perrot acted as interpreter. The Indians listened with approval, a treaty of mutual good will and assistance was made, certain stipulations were agreed upon in regard to trade; and the ceremonies were followed by a grand discharge of musketry. The Te Deum sung by the whole council terminated the proceedings. Thus was the region around the great lakes formally introduced to French dominion, and the gates of exploration and traffic thrown open.

The great river of Minnesota is the Mississippi; and it was but natural that the first explorations should be made along this highway of waters. Father Allouez first heard the name of this stream in the fall of 1665, while visiting the Minnesota shores of Lake Superior. He wrote it as he thought the Chippeways pronounced it, “Messipi.” Father Marquette (whose statue has just been placed in the capitol at Washington), during his missionary tours in the neighborhood of Lake Superior, heard so much of this great river of the Sioux country, that he determined to go in search of it. He and his companions left the mission at Green Bay on the 10th of July, 1673, and went up the Fox river on birch-bark canoes. They made a portage to the Wisconsin; then placed their canoes upon its waters and floated down to the Mississippi, a seven days' journey. Entering the Mississippi, they went down to the Illinois and returned to Green Bay by way of the Illinois and Lake Michigan, arriving at the place whence they started, the last of September—a remarkable feat.

This voyage of Father Marquette was deeply interesting to a native of Rouen, name La Salle, who was living at his trading post, Fort Frontenac, Canada, on the site of the present city of Kingston. La Salle believed that there was a short route to China and Japan from the headwaters of the Mississippi. He sailed to France to obtain the patronage of Louis XIV., and in 1678 received permission “to make discoveries in the western part of New France, to build forts wherever they were necessary, and to enjoy the exclusive right to the trade in buffalo skins which were just beginning to be known and valued in Europe.” One of the first things La Salle did, after his return from France, was to build a large vessel for navigating the lakes. It made but one voyage. On its return from Green Bay to the Niagara river, it was lost; for no tidings of it were ever received. After sending out this ship that never returned, La Salle and his followers, among whom was Father Hennepin, coasted with their four birch-bark canoes along the eastern shore of Wisconsin, and at last descended the Illinois river to the present site of the Peoria, where they built a fort. They also constructed here a vessel for navigating the Mississippi. In this vessel La Salle sent Father Hennepin to discover the sources of the wonderful stream—confident that when he had found these sources, he would also find the new route to China and Japan.

On the 29th of February, 1680, with two companions, Richard du Gay and Michael Accault, Hennepin embarked. He did not discover the sources of the great river or the new route to the Orient; but he did make discoveries that have identified his name forever with the history of Minnesota. It is not easy to determine the order in which Hennepin made his discoveries; but it is probable that the first of these was Lake Pepin. In the neighborhood of the mouth of the Wisconsin he and his companions were captured by a party of Indians. With them he passed through the Lac des Pluers, which was shortly afterwards called Pepin. He thus describes his experiences: About thirty leagues above Black river, we found the Lake of Tears which we named so, because the savages who took us, as it will be hereafter related, consulted in this place, what they should do with their prisoners, and those who were for murdering cried all night upon us, to oblige by their tears, their companions to consent to our death. The lake is formed by the ‘Meschasipi,’ and may be seven leagues long and five broad.” Some miles below the site of St. Paul the Indians landed, at a point opposite Red Rock, and thence journeyed by trail to Mille Lacs. Afterwards, with a hunting party, Hennepin descended the Rum river, and camped at its mouth. Here they nearly perished of famine, and at last, yielding to his earnest entreaties, the Indians allowed him to go free. After some day's traveling, he came to a cataract which he says “indeed of itself is terrible and hath something very astonishing.” He reported this cataract to be sixty feet high. “Near the cataract,” he says, “was a bearskin upon a pole, a sort of oblation to the spirit in the waters.” After carving the cross and the arms of France upon a tree, he called the falls by the name of the patron saint of his expedition. Saint Anthony of Padua. The first white man who looked upon the mighty torrent, now harnessed to the machinery of a great city, was Louis Hennepin. This was in the month of July, 1686.

To this same time belong the names and deeds of several other discoveries. Leaving his post on Lake Superior in the mouth of June, 1686, Du Luth explored the country to the Lake of the Issati, Mille Lac, which he afterwards called Lake Buade, from the family name of Frontenac, governor of Canada. He also ascended the St. Louis river, then called the “Bois Brule,” to its source, exploring the country drained by its waters. His name is preserved in the name of the young and vigorous city that has sprung up in the field of his activities. He was the first to plant the arms of France in the land of the Dakotahs.

In the spring of 1683, the first trading-post was established in Minnesota, on Lake Pepin, by Nicholas Perrot, and a fort was built which for a long time bore his name. A few years later, the Indians, instigated by the English, began to make trouble for the French farther east, and Perrot and his followers, leaving a few half-breeds to protect their goods at the trading-post, joined Du Luth who was in command at Green Bay. Returning with forty men to Lake Pepin, in 1688, the next year he formally claimed the country for France. The document in which this claim is made is called the Proces-Verbal, and is the first official document in relation to Minnesota; for 010 15while its boundaries were not yet defined, it was part of the immense territory included in the claim of Nicholas Perrot. In the beginning, this document “recites the origin and history of Perrot's authority; then tells how he and his companions entered the country; enumerates the tribes encountered on the banks of the upper Mississippi and its branches, the Wisconsin, St. Croix, and Minnesota; and takes possession of the whole region in the name of the king.”

In 1695, Le Sueur established a post on one of the islands of the Mississippi, not far from the present town of Red Wing. He also ascended the Minnesota river to the mouth of the Mankato, or Blue Earth river, about 150 miles above the site of Fort Snelling, where he erected another fort and established a trading-post. Le Sueur explored the entire Blue Earth region. With him the French discoveries in Minnesota appear to have ceased. For half a century these enterprising Frenchmen had been penetrating into the country along the great water-courses, and establishing their trading-posts and forts at strategic points. And yet the hold of the French upon the new territory was slight. D'Iberville, in a memorial addressed to the government, says: “The Sioux are too far removed for trade while they remain in their own country,” and suggests a plan for their removal to the Missouri. He also mentions the tendency of the voyageurs to become roaming hunters and the interference of Canadian traders with those of Louisiana, as great difficulties in the way of securing a stable system of commerce between the tribes and the latter colony. However the French government heeded neither the advice of D'Iberville nor the schemes of others; but discouraged by its ill success, abolished the system of licenses, and withdrew its garrisons from all the points west of Mackinaw. This condition of affairs existed for nearly twenty years. But, after all, this great territory was not to be relinquished or permanently neglected; for events were shaping themselves which revived the waning interest.

The eyes of the English were upon this part of the continent and they worked through the Indians to accomplish their designs. A French document of the day thus refers to the matter: “It is more and more obvious that the English are endeavoring to interpolate among all the Indian nations, and to attach them to themselves. They entertain constantly the idea of becoming masters of North America, pursuaded that the European nation which will be possessor of that section, will, in course of time, be masters of all, because it is there alone that men live in health and have strong, robust children.” “Thus it came to pass,” says Kirk in his history, “that the song of the Canadian boatman was again heard on the streams and lakes of Minnesota, and the fathers of the mission once more performed their sacred ministrations within its borders. But priest and voyageur were not left to battle alone; for the French authorities instituted means for the re-establishment of the deserted posts and the building of new ones.” During the period of struggle which followed, other parts of the territory to the westward were opened, and more adequate ideas of the extent and resources of the country obtained. Previous to the breaking out of what is known in history as the “French and Indian War,” the dominion of France was reasserted and her power again became supreme. And even though later, in 1763, the country was ceded to England by the treaty of Versailles, the French had so strong a hold upon the Indians that the English never established trading-posts west of Mackinaw.

An expedition was organized under English auspices by Jonathan Carver, a native of Connecticut, who had been a commander in the royal service during the French and Indian wars. Leaving Boston in the month of June, 1766, he arrived at Mackinaw in the month of August. Carver simply went over the routes that others had marked out and visited posts and villages already in existence. He added nothing to the area of discovery; but he observed some things in his travels that had escaped the eyes of others, and has given us information that we find nowhere else. He was the first one who called the attention of the civilized world to the existence of earthworks or mounds in the valley of the Mississippi. He discovered the cave which bears his name, some miles below the city of St. Paul— a cave whose sides were carved with Indian hieroglyphics. He tells us that the little island now below the Falls of St. Anthony was then in the middle of the cataract. He describes the picturesque beauty of the country around the falls; he 011 16foresees something of the future greatness of this region. “The future population,” he declares, “will be able to carry their produce to the seaports with great facility, the current of the river from its source to its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico, being extremely favorable for doing this in small craft. This might also in time be facilitated by canals or shorter cuts, and a communication opened by water with New York by way of the lakes.” Carver went to England and interested a member of parliament by the name of Whithworth, in his projects, and would have returned to renew his travels had not the breaking out of the Revolutionary War prevented. Nothing future of importance was accomplished until after that portion of Minnesota lying east of the Mississippi came into possession of the United States, by the Treaty of Paris, 1783. And this event opens a new chapter in the history of Minnesota and of the Northwest Territory.

We have just seen that by the treaty of Paris, that portion of what is now the state of Minnesota, which lay cast of the Mississippi, was ceded to the United States. The French-American territory, assigned to Spain in 1763, was returned to France in 1880, and by the French, almost immediately after, ceded to the United States; so that the immense domain west of the Mississippi, including the other part of our present state, also came into the hands of the government. But as yet no boundaries are defined.

This whole region, at the beginning of the present century, was just emerging from savagery. The Indians still remained and had always to be reckoned with. The French were still an important factor in the sparse population. Halfbreeds abounded. English traders were in possession of the posts. For some years after the country had come into American ownership, the English kept their garrisons in the fort along the frontier; they even went so far as to erect new trading-post which floated the English colors. The traders sought to hold the Indians loyal to British rile and to embitter them against the new regime.

The authorities at Washington found it necessary to become acquainted with the new soil, curb the insolence of the British traders, and conciliate the savage tribes. The first mission of this kind was undertaken by Lieutenant Pike in 1805. “With his small command of twenty men,” says General Sibley, “he penetrated into the midst of the powerful tribes of the Dakotah and Chippewa Indians, arrested their hostile movement towards each other, negotiated a treaty of cession with the former, threatened evil-disposed tribes and Indians with punishment, tore down the British flag wherever displayed, and elicited the respect and admiration of savages who were entirely under British influence, and who had but a faint knowledge of the power of the American government.” As a result of his work, our government acquired from the Dakotahs the first tract of land cede by an Indian tribe within the limits of new territory. Notwithstanding all that had been accomplished by Lieutenant Pike, the traders, during the war of 1812, enlisted the Indians upon the side of England. They assisted in the attacks upon Fort Mackinaw in 1812, Fort Meigs in 1813, and Fort Shelby in 1814. Only tow chiefs of the Dakotahs remained loyal to the Americans. The results of the war were disappointing to the Indians, as the English had made them golden promises they were unable to fulfill; and these wild children of the forest learned to despite the power and authority of the United States no longer.

The expedition of Major Stephen H. Long in 1817 resulted in the selection of the present site of Fort Snelling, where three years later the corner-stone of that military structure was laid. The post was at first called Fort St. Anthony, but through the influence of General Winfield Scott, who was there on a visit of inspection in 1824, the name was changed according to the following recommendation: “The work of which the War Department is in possession of the plans, reflects the greatest credit on Colonel Snelling, his officers and men. The defenses, and for the most part the public storehouses, shops and quarters, being constructed of stone, the whole is likely to endure so long as the post shall remain a frontier one. I wish to suggest to the general-in-chief, and through him to the War Department, the propriety of calling this work Fort 012 17Snelling, as a just compliment to the meritorious warrior under whom it has been erected.”

While the fort was building, the Arts of Peace were also being cultivated. The seeds of a future civilization were being sown. In 1821,the Northwestern and Hudson Bay Fur Companies—hitherto at war—united, and the Columbia Fur Company, with headquarters at Lake Traverse, was formed. The first mills erected on Minnesota soil were built by the government at the Falls of St. Anthony, in 1821 and 1823 to manufacture flour and lumber for the garrison at Fort Snelling. This latter year also witnessed the beginning of steam navigation on the waters of the upper Mississippi. During the same year, the first distinctively scientific expedition entered Minnesota, under the direction of Major Long. Among the explorers were Samuel Seymour, artist; Professor W. H. Keating, of Pennsylvania University, mineralogist and geologist, and Thomas Say, of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, zoologist and antiquarian. It is said that, “the scientific observations, though rapidly taken, were of great value. The geological and geographical descriptions of the Minnesota and Red rivers were particularly interesting; and to these some information was added relative to the fauna and flora of those valleys.” Still later, the labors of Nicollet, in these directions, were important. Progress was also being made in the management of the Indians. On the 19th of August, 1825, the Northwestern tribes met at Prairie du Chien, where the government was represented by Lewis Cass, of Michigan, and Governor Clarke of Missouri. The Dakotahs and Ojibways here consented to have definite bounds placed between their hunting-grounds, to prevent future contention. The year following, Mr. Cass attended a council of the Ojibways of Fond du Lac. On the 5th of August a treaty was sealed in which “the Ojibways promised to sever all allegiance to Great Britain, and acknowledge at all times the United States' supremacy.”

Still further progress towards the coming civilization must now be noted. The year 1833 marks the beginning of schools and missions among the Protestants. They originated with Rev. W. T. Boutwell, among the Ojibways at Leech Lake. In 1834, S. W. Pond and his brother opened a mission for the Dakotahs at Lake Calhoun. In June, 1835, a Presbyterian church was organized at Fort Snelling. In 1836, Dr. Williamson, Mr. Higgins and Miss Poage, located at Lac qui Parle and organized a church. In 1837, they were joined by Rev. S. R. Riggs and wife. These were the humble beginnings. The toils and sacrifices of these first teachers and missionaries laid the foundations for the work of others. On these foundations schools and churches have multiplied.

The year 1837, eventful in the history of missions, is also eventful in commercial history. Outside capital began to flow towards the Northwest and towards this particular spot of the Northwest. A council of the Ojibways, held at Fort Snelling, this year, ceded to the United States all the pine lands of the St. Croix and its tributaries. “Capitalists immediately began to improve the water power at the Falls of St. Croix and this was the beginning of the now extensive manufacturing of lumber, so closely related to the commercial welfare of the state. The Palmyra, Captain Holland commander, the first steamer to navigate the St. Croix, brought the machinery for the projected mills. A delegation of the Dakotahs at Washington also ceded to the government all their Minnesota lands east of the Mississippi.”

The principal event in the closing part of this period was the founding of St. Paul, in 1840. A chapel of that name was first erected, and a small village sprang up around it. Dr. Williamson, writing in 1843, gives a description of the settlement as it then appeared: “My present residence is on the utmost verge of civilization, in the northwest part of the United States, within a few miles of the principal village of white men in the territory that we suppose will bear the name of Minnesota. The village referred to has grown up within a few years in a romantic situation, on a high bluff of the Mississippi, and has been baptised by the Roman Catholics with the name of St. Paul. They have erected in it a small chapel, and constitute much the larger portion of its inhabitants. The Dakotahs call it Im-ni-jas-ka, or ‘White Rock,’ from the color of the sandstone which forms the bluff on which the village stands. The village contains five stores, as they call them, at all of which intoxicating drinks form a part, and I suppose the principal part, of what they 013 18sell. I would suppose the village contains a dozen or twenty families living near enough to send to school.”

The period condensed into these few paragraphs, to use the words of Mr. Kirk, “May well be called the period of transition between the times of the voyageurs and the settlements; of romantic adventure, yielding to scientific research; of slowly shifting scenes in th prologue of yet another great drama of modern American life, for which the forces of civilization were steadily arranging themselves while the outside world began to look with eyes of eager expectancy for the opening of the first act.”

That part of Minnesota lying west of the Mississippi came successively under the jurisdiction of Louisiana Province in 1803, Louisiana territory in 1805, Missouri territory in 1812, Michigan territory in 1834, Wisconsin territory in 1836 and Iowa territory in 1838. The part east of thee Mississippi secured, as already mentioned, by the treaty of Paris, belonged to the Northwest territory in 1787, Indiana territory in 1800, Illinois territory in 1809, Michigan territory in 1834, and Wisconsin territory in 1836.

Territory after territory, state after state, was organized out of this immense domain. Finally, in 1848, Wisconsin, with boundaries not so inclusive as those of Wisconsin territory, was admitted as a state. The act was passed on the 29th of May. The following July, a meeting was held at St. Paul which “proposed the calling of a convention to consider the steps proper to be taken by those citizens of the old Wisconsin territory beyond the boundaries of the new state of Wisconsin.” The first public meeting for this purpose was held August 5th, at Stillwater, and Franklin Steele and Henry H. Sibley were the only ones who attended from the west side of the Mississippi. At this time a call was issued for a general convention to meet at the same place on the 26th of the same month. Sixty-two delegates were present and Henry H. Sibley was appointed to proceed to Washington and urge the immediate passage of a bill for the organization of Minnesota territory.” In the meantime, Mr. Sibley was elected to the House of Representatives, and finally succeeded in having a bill passed for the organization of the territory of Minnesota, with the present boundaries, and St. Paul as the capital. On March 3, the bill was signed by the president. Mr. Sibley will always be remembered for this service. He had to battle hard in the House. The measure was opposed on various pretexts, and hampered with embarrassing amendments. An effort was made to append the Wilmot Proviso. “By great exertions on the part of myself and my friends,” says Mr. Sibley, “the House was at length persuaded to recede from its amendment.” The news was brought to St. Paul by the first packet-boat of the season, which ploughed its way through the icy river in early April. There was great rejoicing in the new capital. A few days later, James M. Goodhue appeared with his printing press and established the “Pioneer,” the first newspaper in the territory.

Alexander Ramsey, of Harrisburg, Pa., was appointed governor by the president. He arrived before the close of April, and June 1 issued his firs proclamation, declaring the new government duly organized and directing all citizens to hold themselves obedient to its laws. Three judicial districts were formed: The first was the old county of St. Croix; the second, the northeast section, or La Pointe county, north of the Minnesota and the right line drawn westward from its headwaters to the Missouri; the third, comprised the remaining region to the south and westward of the former stream. Stillwater, St. Anthony Falls, and Mendota, were the places in which the respective courts were held. In July, the governor proclaimed the division of the territory into seven council districts, and issued an order for the first election of members of the council, representatives of the house, and a delegate to congress. The congressional election resulted in the choice of Henry H. Sibley. At this time the population of the territory was only 4,680; but the eyes of multitudes from all parts of the country were beginning to turn towards the Star of the North.

The first legislature convened September 3, 1849. The sessions were held in the Central House, which served the double purpose of capitol and hotel. “On the first floor of the main building,” says Neil, “was the secretary's office and representative chamber, and in the second 014 19story was the library and council chamber. As the flag was run up the staff in front of the house, a number of Indians sat on a rocky bluff in the vicinity and gazed at what to them was a novel and perhaps saddening scene.” The new territory is now fully organized and all the machinery of government is in motion.

Under the administration of Governor Ramsey, immense progress was made. The first legislature created the following counties: Itasca, Wabasha, Dakotah, Wahnatah, Mankato, Pembina, Washington, Ramsey, and Benton. Before the close of 1849, the citizens of St. Paul were considering the establishment of the first public school in the territory. Treaties were made with the Indians in 1850 and 1851, by which they relinquished their titles to large areas of the territory to make way for the advancing tide of immigration. The summer of 1850 witnessed the beginning of navigation of the Minnesota river. Meanwhile the capital city was growing. About this time, Fredericka Bremer, the Swedish novelist, wrote: “The town is one of the youngest of the great West, scarcely eighteen months old, and yet it has, in a short time, increased to a population of two thousand persons, and in a very few years it will certainly be possessed of twenty-two thousand. As yet, however, the town is but in its infancy, and people manage with such dwellings as they can get. The drawing-room at Governor Ramsey's house is also his office, and Indians and work people, ladies and gentlemen, are alike admitted. The city is thronged with Indians. The men, for the most part, go about grandly ornamented, with naked hatchets, the shafts of which serve them as pipes.”

The second legislature, which met in 1851, made St. Paul the permanent capital, located the territorial prison at Stillwater, and established the University of Minnesota at St. Anthony Falls. The third legislature, in 1852, created the county of Hennepin. At this time settlements were made at Shakopee, Traverse des Sioux, Kasota and Mankato, in th Minnesota valley; and the largest one of all was made in the valley of the Rollingstone at Winona. So rapidly was the new territory filling with settlers, so great were the strides in material progress, that when Governor Ramsey in 1853 addressed the fourth legislative assembly, he said: “In concluding my last annual message permit me to observe that it is now a little over three years and six months since it was my happiness to first land upon the soil of Minnesota. Not far from where we now are a dozen frame houses not all complete, with some eight or ten log buildings, with bark roofs, constituted the capital of the new territory, over whose destiny I had been commissioned to preside. One county, a remnant from Wisconsin territorial organization, alone afforded the ordinary facilities for the execution of the laws; and in and around its seat of justice resided the bulk of our scattered population. Within this single county were embraced all the lands white men were privileged to till, while between them and the broad, rich hunting-grounds of untutored savages rolled the River of Rivers. * * * The few bark-roofed huts have been transformed into a city of thousands. In forty-one months, have condensed a whole century of achievements, calculated by the old world's calendar of progress—a government proclaimed in the wilderness, a judiciary organized, a legislature constituted, a comprehensive code of laws digested and adopted, our population quintupled, cities and towns springing up on every hand, and steam, with its revolving arms, in its season, daily fretting the bosom of the Mississippi, in bearing fresh crowds of men and merchandise within our borders. Nor is that least among the important achievements of this brief period, which had enabled us, by extinguishing the Indian title to forty million acres of land, to overleap the Father of Waters, and plant civilization on his western shore.”

Franklin Pierce had now become president of the United States, and following strictly the principle that to the victors belong the spoils, he removed Governor Ramsey and appointed as his successor Willis A. Gorman, of Indiana, a Kentuckian by birth, who had served as an officer in the Mexican war. This year Henry M. Rice was elected to congress in place of Henry H. Sibley. The fifth legislature met in 1854, and Governor Gorman, in his first annual message, urged “speedy legislation in behalf of education, and the construction of railroads to meet the constantly increasing demands for transportation towards the eastern seaboards.” The question of railroad construction soon became the all-absorbing topic of the hour. The bill, incorporating the Minnesota 015 20& Northwestern Railroad Company, was passed during the last moments of the legislative session. In their anxiety to foster commercial interests, the legislature had promised to grant this company “all lands which should thereafter be given Minnesota by the national government to aid in constructing railroads, as well as all those lands of that character then possessed by the territory.” This action of the legislature was destined to prove a source of contention for many years. In this same year, 1854, the survey of the original town of Minneapolis was made.

In 1855 the wire suspension bridge across the Mississippi, between St. Anthony and Minneapolis, was completed—the first bridge that ever spanned the great river. The 29th of March, this same year, witnessed the formation of the republican party. The year 1857 was marked by some Indian atrocities in the southwestern part of the terrtory. The whole section was in terror. Soldiers from Fort Ridgely were sent to the scene of slaughter. They found and buried thirty dead bodies, but the murderers were never captured. The contempt which the Indian learned for the soldier and the power he represented, had its influence later in the terrible uprising of 1862.

Through all these years—years of creating counties, of building towns, of acquiring land for agricultural purposes, of founding schools and universities—the territory is steadily moving forward towards the state. On the 26th of February, 1857, the United States senate passed an act “enabling the people of Minnesota to form a state constitution previous to its admission into the Union. By this act the boundaries of the state were defined as at present, and it was granted lands for the support of schools and the erection of public buildings.” By another act of the same session “alternate sections of land were granted for the construction of railroads within the state.” Governor Gorman immediately called an extra session of the legislature; but before it convened, President Buchanan appointed Samuel Medary to take his place as governor. A constitutional convention agreed upon a constitution for the coming state, August 29; and October 13 it was ratified by almost unanimous vote of the citizens. On the 7th of April, 1858, the bill for the admission of Minnesota was carried, and on the 11th of May was signed by the president. Thus Minnesota entered the great sisterhood of states; and a new star was placed upon the national banner.

Dark and troubled was the time when Minnesota entered upon her career as a state, and nearly the whole of the first decade of state history was a period of depression and discouragement. The panic of 1857 had made it almost impossible for the new commonwealth to negotiate loans for the development of its resources. Then, there were mistakes in legislation than produced evil consequences in after years. For example, the first legislature (1858) pledged the public credit to the amount of five million dollars “to further subsidize the delinquent railroad companies.” The constitution of the state was amended so as to permit this to be done. Governor Sibley refused to issue the bonds, but was compelled to do so by a mandamus of the Supreme Court. More than two millions of dollars worth of bonds were then thrown upon the market, although not a rail of the projected road had been laid. Then came the Civil War in 1861, and the Sioux outbreak in 1862. Calamities followed thick upon the heels of blunders, and it was not until after the close of the war that the state began her real career.

We must not conclude, however, that there were no bright spots in this period of our history. This first state legislature passed the act creating our present Normal Schools at Winona, Mankato and St. Cloud. In lieu of better transportation facilities, an overland route was opened, June, 1859, between St. Paul and Breckenridge, on the Red River. From this point a steamer carried goods to the Hudson Bay Company's territory. The failure of the railroad companies to keep their pledges could not wholly check the spirit of enterprise. But the attention paid to educational matters is one of the most significant things of this early day. We have just mentioned the establishment of normal schools. In the fall of 1859, Alexander Ramsey, first governor of the territory, was elected second governor of the state. One of the first incidents of his administration was the repeal of the old act establishing 016 21a territorial university, and on the basis of a new grant from congress, the founding of the State University of to-day. Acts were also passed regulating the sale of the public school lands, of which “there were two sections in each township exclusively devoted to the support of the lower or common schools, besides the special grants made in favor of the higher education.” The founders of Minnesota realized that the prosperity and glory of a state must be based upon the education of its children.

During Governor Ramsey's first term, the Civil War began; and while the struggle was at its height, and thousands of citizens away from their homes on the fields of battle, the Sioux perpetrated their bloody massacres. It was a black and stormy time. So far as the Civil War is concerned, it is a matter of record of which we may be justly proud, that Minnesota led the van in the great conflict for the preservation of the Union. Governor Ramsey was in Washington when the flag waved over Suruter was fired upon. Before the sun went down on that fateful day, he had offered—first of all the governors—the aid of the state troops, and President Lincoln had accepted. The news was flashed to the capital of Minnesota; the lieutenant governor at once issued a proclamation, and by the 21st of June the First Minnesota fully organized and equipped, under command of Col. W. A. Gorman, started for the seat of war. From time onward to Lee's surrender, the Minnesota troops were potent factors in the armies of the North. Twenty-five thousand and fifty-two, all told, the settlers of Minnesota numbered who enlisted in the cause of freedom and union. Minnesota regiments fought in every great battle of the long contest. The First Minnesota won its initial honors in the first battle of Bull Run; then down to the second battle of Fredericksburg, down to Gettysburg, down to Appomattox, where many of its original members took part in the closing fight, all along the course of the war the noted regiment made memorable record. The Minnesota sharpshooters were at Malvern Hill, Antietam and Fredericksburg. The Fourth and Fifth regiments won honorable distinction at Shiloh and Corinth. The Fifth was at the siege of Vicksburg. The Fifth, Seventh, Ninth and Tenth regiments, under Gen. A. J. Smith, helped to defeat Forest at Tulepo, Mississippi. They afterwards fought at Tallahatchie and pursued the retreating rebels under Price. The Second regiment helped to storm the enemy's works on the summit of Mission Ridge, and was with the first battery in the Atlanta campaign. Space will not permit us to enter more fully into detail. Among the first on the theater of war, among the last to leave the scene, the troops of Minnesota added lustre to the name of the state; though for the time material interests languished and industrial progress was checked. When the life of the nation was at stake, all other considerations might well be subordinated.

While thousands of citizens were away fighting for the union, suddenly, in 1862, the Sioux descended upon many of the unprotected settlements and perpetrated a massacre appalling even for savages. Many reasons have been assigned for this bloody uprising, and there were doubtless many causes at work. There was delay in the payment of annuities; many of the Indians had insufficient food in the meantime; there were some encroachments of settlers upon Indian reservations; there was ill-feeling between the unconverted Indians and those under missionary influence; but above and beyond all, perhaps, was the desire to regain their lost territory and reconquer the land from the whites. This desire was fostered by the predictions of their medicine men that the Sioux would defeat the Americans in battle and again occupy the country, after clearing it of the whites. Secret leagues had been formed among the warriors. The wished-for end had long been considered. All things seemed to indicate that the time was ripe. Thousands of young and able-bodied men were away helping to crush the rebellion. They remembered, too, these Indians, that no steps had been taken by the government to punish Ink-pa-du-tah and his band, and this fact was interpreted as weakness. Thus the way was prepared, and conditions seemed favorable. The first blow was struck at Acton, in Meeker county, where five persons were remorselessly slaughtered. The next day the general work of murder, under Little Crow, began, at the agencies and spread through the surrounding country, until terror reigned supreme through the valley of the Minnesota. “The unarmed men of the settlements,” says Capt. Charles Bryant, 017 22“offered no defense and could offer none, but fled before the savage horde, each in his own way, to such place as the dictates of self-preservation gave the slightest hope of safety. Some sought the protection of the nearest slough; others crawled into the tall grass, hiding in many instances in sight of the lurking foe. Children of tender years, hacked and beaten and bleeding, fled from their natural protectors, now dead or disabled, and by aid of some trail of blood, or by the instincts of our common nature, fled away from fields of slaughter, cautiously crawling by night from the line of smoke and fire in the rear, either towards Fort Ridgely or some town on the Minnesota or the Mississippi. Over the entire border of the state, and even near the populus towns on the river, an eye looking down from above could have seen a human avalanche of thirty thousand, of all ages, and in all possible plight, the rear ranks maimed and bleeding and faint from starvation and the loss of blood, continually falling into the hands of inhuman savages, keen and fierce on the trail of the white man.” The uprising was promptly met by the governor, who at once sent Gen. Sibley to the scene of massacre. After a successful campaign the decisive battle was fought at Wood Lake, not far from the upper agency at the ford of the Yellow Medicine. Within a month from the first blow struck by the Sioux, their hopes vanished in smoke from the white man's guns, their white captives were restored to friends and three hundred of their guilty tribesmen had been taken. These criminals were tried by a military commission and condemned to death, but President Lincoln commuted the sentences of all but thirty-eight, who were hung at Mankato on the 26th of December. The following year (1863) under the administration of Governor H. A. Swift, Gen. Sibley drover the remaining hostile Sioux from the state and they fled beyond the Missouri. The same year the notorious Little Crow, who had ventured back, was shot by a young settler named Chauncey Lampson, in the Big Woods, six miles from Hutchinson. Thus ended one of the saddest chapters in the history of the young commonwealth.

The year 1865 marks the close of the war. The surviving troops return to take up again the avocations of peace. The Indian question is settled, and immigration turns once more toward the North Star state. A new era begins with the administration of Governor W. R. Marshall, extended through two successive terms. Educational and charitable institutions are founded. The first hospital for the insane is located at St. Peter. Buildings for the school for deaf, dumb and blind are erected at Faribault. The normal institute at Winona is finished. The reform school is founded. The state is brought into line with the results of the Civil War, by striking the word “white” from the constitution. It is an epoch of railroad construction. Grants of land for the Southern Minnesota and the Hastings & Dakota are made. The Northern Pacific is begun. The right of the state to 500,000 acres of land for internal improvements is established. “I am profoundly grateful,” says Governor Marshall, in his last message, “to the Providence that connected me with the state government during so interesting and prosperous a period.” Under his successor, Governor Horace Austin, there was a steady and rapid growth of the commonwealth. Immigration increased, railroad construction was pushed with vigor, and real state rose rapidly in value. Several important amendments to the constitution signalize Governor Austin's term of office. One provided for increasing the public debt of the state to maintain more effectively our charitable institutions. Another prevented any city or village or county from gaining a bonus of more than ten per cent of its property valuation to any railroad asking for aid. (This was subsequently made five per cent.) Still another amendment preserved the sale of internal improvement lands at the rate obtained for school lands, and provided for the investment of funds so obtained in United States and Minnesota state bonds. The administration of Cushman K. Davis (elected in 1873), was characterized by railroad legislation. The regulation of rates and the relation of the railroad to the public, were freely discussed. Governor Davis himself says: “The most important political event of my administration was undoubtedly the culmination of the controversy which had been carried on for some years between the railroad companies and the people, on the question of the legislative power to control the former in the performance of their duties towards the public, especially in regard to fixing rates for transportation.” 018 23The result was a statute authorizing the governor to appoint a commission of three, “who had power to fix the rates of the various companies within the state.” During Governor Davis; term of office the state was divided into judicial districts and women were granted the right of suffrage in school elections.

In 1875, John S. Pillsbury was elected. He held the position for three successive terms, having been twice-re-elected. During his administration the amendment to the constitution was passed forbidding the use of school funds for the support of sectarian schools (1877), and the question of railroad bonds was finally and honorably settled (1882.) Selah Chamberlain, in behalf of himself and a majority of the holders of railroad bonds, offered to make a settlement, taking new bonds of half the face value of the old. An extra session of the legislature decided to accept Mr. Chamberlain's offer. Governor Pillsbury will always be remembered with gratitude for insisting upon maintaining the credit of the state, against a strong and persistent sentiment of repudiation. His own words deserve to be recorded here: “In my opinion, no public calamity, no visitation of grasshoppers, no wholesale destruction or insidious pestilence, could possibly inflict so fatal a blow upon our state as the deliberate repudiation of her solemn obligations. * * * With the loss of public honor, little could remain worthy of preservation.” Governor Pillsbury has in many ways done much for the state of his adoption; but his firm and noble stand for the public credit of itself entitles him to the respect of coming generations.

The administration of Governor Lucius F. Hubbard (elected in 1881), covers two terms, during which schools of every grade were multiplied and public charities flourished, while the material prosperity of the state continued to grow. To use his own words: “In population, wealth and the development of all the industries of our people, Minnesota made a decided advance during 1882 and 1883. The extension of our railroad system, particularly the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad, gave a decided impetus to our commercial centers. The adoption of more diversified methods infused new life into our agricultural interests, and with large accessions to our population, and active capital, all industrial pursuits felt the inspiration of a healthy and substantial progress.”

Andrew R. McGill succeeded Mr. Hubbard. In 1887 a system of high license was adopted by the state for those places that do not prohibit liquor selling under the local option law, fixing the license at $1,000 for cities of 10,000 inhabitants and over, for all other places half that sum. One-third of all the saloons in the state went out of business, while from the remainder the state received 50 per cent more revenue than previously from the entire number. The act creating the railroad commission, under Governor Davis, was repealed and a new act was passed which embodied many of the provisions of the old and added new features. Among these were provisions to prevent rebates and pooling, requiring charges to be equal and reasonable, to prevent hindrances to through transportation and undue discrimination for longer or shorter hauls. Other acts were passed requiring all railroads, not subject to special tax laws, to pay a percentage of their gross earnings in lieu of taxes; forbidding the sale of watered stock, and making companies liable for the negligence of their servants. During this year, in spite of this stringent legislation, 196 miles of railroad were built in the state. In 1888 a fourth normal school was established at Moorhead, and the buildings of the Soldiers' Home, provided for by an act of the previous year, were completed near Minnehaha Falls on a site provided by the city of Minneapolis. The Farm and Labor party, whose influence was to be increasingly felt in politics, was organized August 28 of this year, at St. Paul.

The next governor was William R. Merriam, who began his term of office in 1889. At the first session of the legislature W. D. Washburn was elected to the United States senate to succeed Dwight M. Sabin. The Australian system of voting was adopted for all cities of 10,000 inhabitants or over. The Supreme Court pronounced the legislation of the preceding administration regulating railway charges, unconstitutional. “Railroads,” said the Court, “are entitled to a judicial determination of the facts whether the rates established are just and reasonable”—a right denied them under the law. At the close of Governor Merriam's second term in 1892, the finances of the state were in a sound and prosperous 019 24condition. Progress was everywhere being made. The population was rapidly increasing. Business corporation were multiplying. New territory was being settled. Manufactures flourished. Prosperity reigned.

The administration of Knute Nelson began in 1893. During this year gold was discovered in Minnesota. Special Agent Gray, in his report, says: “One vein with evidence of gold, which is about seven feet wide and extends throughout the length of the island, and another ten feet wide and 1,700 feet long, were found. The section embraces only a narrow strip, extending along the shore of Rainy Lake for about twenty-five miles, and not more than three or four miles wide at any point, including a large number of islands.” This year is also made memorable by the opening of the transcontinental line of the Great Northern in June. The event was celebrated with great rejoicing in St. Paul. The road is operated in connection with a fleet of Pacific steamers. The northern part of Minnesota was this year visited by forest fires that rendered 2,000 people homeless. An International Reciprocity Convention was held in St. Paul June 5, between representatives of the United States and Canada. Resolutions were passed favoring reciprocity in trade, improvement of the great lake to tide-water so as to admit the passage of ocean steamers and open competition between the railroads of both countries. This year Minnesota was represented at the World's Fair Exposition in Chicago. “Besides its own building, the state had exhibits in all the general buildings. The forestry and mining displays were particularly fine. More than 200 awards were received for cereals, with only a little more than 300 samples shown; 40 for mining exhibits, 66 for four. Fifty premiums were received for draught horses, 48, for cattle and 21 for poultry.” During the legislative session of Mr. Nelson's first term, Cushman K. Davis was elected to succeed himself in the United States senate. Bills were passed appropriating money for a new capitol, placing the State University on a more independent footing by a slight increase in taxation, extending the benefit of state inspection of grain to the farmer and granting them the right to erect elevators on railroad right of way, providing for safeguards to all dangerous machinery, and placing all manufacturing and other establishment employing large number of people under the inspection of the Bureau of labor. In 1894 forest fires again ravaged a large part of the state centering in the vicinity of Hinckley. Over 400 lives were lost, many persons were maimed, 2,000 were left destitute and $1,000,000 of property was destroyed. Prompt action was taken by a relief committee pointed by the governor and $25,000 were spent in providing for the needy.

Gov. Nelson was re-elected in 1894, but the legislature early in 1859 made him United States senator, and lieutenant governor, David M. Clough, too the governor's chair. During 1895, $50,000 was appropriated to execute a stringent measure for the eradication of the Russian thistle, another $50,000 to continue the drainage of lands in the Red river Valley. Some measures looking to road improvements also became laws. The unsold lands of the defunct Hastings & Dakota Railroad corporation to the extent of 55,000 acres, were declared forfeited. A bounty of 1 cent per pound was offered on sugar made from sorghum or beet roots. Some laws of importance to the cause of labor were passed. Contract labor in prisons was done away, and provision made that the number of prisoners engaged in any productive occupation shall not exceed ten per cent of the free labor employed. Children under fourteen are not to be employed in any factory, workshop or mine; nor hall any such child be employed outside of the family where he resides before 6 o'clock in the morning or after 7 at night. If under compulsory school age, he can not be employed anywhere during school hours.

With this year our sketch closes. The panic of 1893 still continue, and business is prostrate. But the history of the past encourages us to believe that the cloud will lift and prosperity return. The growth of the state has been marvelous. Its resources, a we shall see, are almost without limit. Its future is assured.

Let us now turn from contemplating the history of the past to examine the foundation upon which the future must be based. What are our resources? What has nature done for us?

First of all, let us speak of the soil. “Every factor in nature,” says Prof. Snyder, of the State 020 25University, “seems to have at work in making the soils of Minnesota rich in plant food. They are mainly drift soils derived from the very best rock materials, pulverized by the action of glaciers, and enriched for centuries by the natural workings of vegetable and animal life. A great deal could be said about the fertility of Minnesota soil, but about the most convincing proof that can be given is the fact that the soils exhibited as spicemens at the Columbian Exposition received the award from the United States government for soils rich in plant foods. The same authority also says; “The fertility of the soils of the state has a marked effect upon the quality of the products. In the case of wheat, the average amount of gluten in the wheat raised in the United States is 11.9 per cent. The average amount of gluten in the wheat raised in Minnesota is 13.75 per cent. Other crops are in the same proportion. The crops raised on the rich soil of Minnesota have a greater food value than crops raised on the poor, worn soils of older countries.” It goes without saying that, in addition to wheat, all the other cereals produced in other lands can be grown in Minnesota. The vegetables of other climates flourish here. The fruits of the temperate zones, notwithstanding our sever winters, find here a congenial home. The strawberry takes front rank in value of product; but large quantities of raspberries, blackberries, currants and gooseberries are also grown. Minnesota also annually produces 185,000 bushels of apples, the number of trees growing at the present time being 452,665. In 893, there were gathered from 77,4[50 vines, 83,839 pounds of grapes. It must be borne in mind that vast areas of our territory are not yet under cultivation. The number of acres that had been touched by the plow in 1894 was only 7,000,000; but the total government land not yet occupied—to say nothing of railroad lands—is 10,000,000 acres, greater in area than all ploughed land of Ireland and Scotland, equal to nearly one-half the cultivated area of New England, and to 70 percent of the total arable land of Old England. Of those tracts about one-half are surveyed and ready for the homesteader. These government lands lie, for the most part, in the northern portion of central Minnesota. From its remarkable abundance of Lakes, rivers and forest, this section of the state is called the Lake Park Region of the Mississippi Valley. When the railroad lands, in different localities, are taken into account, the total acreage yet awaiting the advent of the farmer is raised to 200,000,000. The possibilities that lie hidden in this immense domain may be conjectured from the size and variety of the crops raised upon the cultivated fields.

In addition to agriculture and horticulture, stock-raising and wool-growing occupy much of the attention of the farmers of Minnesota; and a competent authority says: “There is room for the profitable development of the live stock industry to any extent that my be desired.” The climate is favorable, and food is easily and cheaply produced. “In nearly all parts of Minnesota and the Northwest, clover in one or the other of its forms may be successfully grown. Soiling crops can be produced in great perfection. Corn for feeding cattle can be grown right up the Canadian boundary line. Millet finds a favorite home within the state, and the same is true of flax. Mangels may be raised everywhere, and all kinds of cereals for stall feeding are plentiful and cheap.” As to sheep raising, “In Minnesota there are some 160 varieties of native grasses and plants, a large proportion of which are suitable as food for sheep. * * * There is great room for the extension of sheep husbandry in the state of Minnesota.” It is an industry which brings quick returns. “The first season after the investment, there is a return on wool.” In the spring of 1894, 1,347,052 pounds were sheared.

When we leave the sections cultivated or capable of cultivation and enter the forests, we begin to understand what is back of the lumber industry. Nearly half of the northwestern portion of the state is or has been more or less covered with pine forests. This comprises an area of 21,000 square miles. “The special hardwoods of Minnesota,” says Mr. J. O. Barrett, “known as the Big Woods, lie south and west of the coniferous district, extending within 50 or 60 miles of the international boundary, and south 300 miles and 20 or more miles wide. This hardwood belt —largely red and white oak and hard maple—is on the extreme western body of timber of any considerable value east of the Rocky Mountains.” 021 26In 1894, nearly one billion feet of pine timber were cut, and about one hundred million feet of hardwood.

But there are resources within the soil as well as on top of it. In 1894 Minnesota rose to the position of second state in Lake Superior region and even in the United States, in the production of iron ore. The output of the mines in this year was 2,742,146 tons. In 1896, Minnesota rose to the first position with an estimated output of 4,000,000 tons. Her stone quarries are annually producing more and more building materials. No later figures are at hand than those of the census of 1890; but these show that, while in 1880 there were only 41 quarries for all kinds of stone, whose total product was worth $255,818, in 1889, there were 102 quarries producing limestone, granite and sandstone valued at $1,102,008. There is also wealth in the clay of certain localities; and bricks, sewer pipe and pottery are manufactured in large quantities. The stoneware made at Red Wing alone amounts in capacity to 7,000,000 gallons annually.

This is but the merest suggestion of the resources of our state. Space will not admit of further detail. Only the principal industries have been named. There are others that can not even be mentioned. When we consider how brief has been the career of the state, how much has been accomplished in that short existence, what events have been crowded into it, what industries have been established, what territory put under cultivation, what products have been forced from the earth, and then survey the land yet to be possessed, we can only wonder what the future may be, what further strides will be taken. The materials for greater development than has yet been attained are abundant. We may well believe that they will be wisely used. We have never yet forgotten the importance of education as our schools and university attest; nor of religion, as our churches witness. And so long as the scheming brain and the skilled hand go forward side by side with culture and conscience, their achievements can not be too numerous or great. “As to the future of this great central district of North America,” says Bancroft, “no one who has not seen it can form an adequate conception, while those who have examined and studied the subject, only become sensible how much farther reason may sometimes go than imagination can venture to follow.”